


To Keep the Cold at Bay

by DesireeArmfeldt



Category: due South
Genre: M/M, POV Third Person Limited, Post-Call of the Wild, Sharing Body Heat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 21:05:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5840953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesireeArmfeldt/pseuds/DesireeArmfeldt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fraser keeps Ray warm on the Quest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Keep the Cold at Bay

**Author's Note:**

> Lo! I have written a thing! (It is none of my bazillion WIPs. Because that's how life works.)

The first night out on the ice, Ray’s so cold he’s afraid he might actually die. He’s wrapped up in three layers of clothes, plus Fraser zipped their sleeping bags together into one big bag, saying that they’d sleep warmer that way, but Ray still can’t stop shivering. He hugs himself tight, telling himself he’ll warm up in a second, as soon as their body heat takes the chill out of the bag. But the seconds keep passing and his teeth are chattering, the cold is eating into his _bones,_ it _hurts,_ and he doesn’t know what the hell to do, because it’s not like he can just go get an extra blanket out of the closet. They’re alone out here: really seriously _alone_ , with nothing but the few supplies they could fit on the damn sled, and no one to help them if anything goes wrong out in this giant, empty, freezing wasteland.

He tries to calm himself down by listening to Fraser’s steady breathing just a few inches behind him—because Fraser’s here, Fraser knows how to do this shit, and he’s not worried, he’s _asleep,_ for God’s sake, so they must be okay. Except Ray’s _not_ okay, because he’s fucking freezing to death, and he’s starting to think maybe that’s not an exaggeration: maybe he’s _actually, literally_ going to freeze to death. And he could poke Fraser awake and Frase would help him somehow, but maybe he _couldn’t_ , maybe even Fraser can’t help him, here—no, calm down, Kowalski, don’t be a dumbass, Fraser wouldn’t take you out here and let you die, the worst that’s gonna happen is you have a shitty night and he takes you back to ‘civilization’ in the morning and that’s the end of the adventure, and the partnership, too, because you weren’t tough enough hack it, you couldn’t—

And then Fraser rolls over, so instead of lying back-to-back with a couple of inches between them, his front is pressed right up against Ray’s back, and wow, okay, suddenly Ray is maybe not _warm_ , exactly, but not freezing anymore. He’s not sure whether to say _thanks_ , or whether this is one of those things you’re not supposed to mention. Hell, he’s not even totally sure Fraser’s awake. In the end, he doesn’t say anything; he just lets Fraser’s body heat seep through him until he’s not-cold enough that he can finally fall asleep. 

The next night, they get into the bag back-to-back like before, and nobody says anything. But when Ray starts to shiver, Fraser spoons silently up against his back, thank-God- _warm_. After that, it’s their routine: they sleep in the double bag, Ray’s back pressed against Fraser’s cozy front. Fraser never puts his arms around him or anything like that, because this isn’t cuddling, it’s life-saving. It’s one of those things you do because it’s necessary, and so there’s no reason to talk about it.

They’re out there for weeks; Ray loses track of the calendar, what with every day being basically the same except for the details. It’s like nothing he’s ever experienced before, being outside time, cut loose from the real world of clocks and schedules and to-do lists and _people_. He learns how to drive the dogsled, and set up camp, and walk in snowshoes, and navigate by the North Star (or at least find it reliably), and even how to gut and skin small furry animals, which is gross but also kind of cool. He learns a lot of useless but interesting trivia from Encyclopedia Fraser, and he learns a lot of important, priceless stuff _about_ Fraser. And even though he’s exhausted half the time and cold pretty much all the time, he’s happy in a way he’s not sure he’s ever felt before.

He’s so into the groove of it, the timelessness, that it shocks the hell out of him when Fraser says one morning as they’re packing up the sled that they’ll make Inuvik in a couple of days if the weather holds. Ray doesn’t know what the hell to say to that, so he just says, “Okay,” and goes back to checking the straps while Fraser goes to get the dogs into harness. Apparently Frase doesn’t have anything to say about it, either.

That evening’s weird, because they make camp and eat dinner and get the dogs bedded down just like normal, and they don’t mention the end-of-it-all that’s hanging over them like some kind of invisible storm cloud. Ray wonders if maybe it’s just him, if Fraser doesn’t feel that cloud like he does, if the end of the trip is no big deal to him. But no, because Frase is extra-quiet: no stories from his dad’s journals or his own wacky good times chasing poachers in Iglooburg. And he’s not staring up at the stars like they’re telling him the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything, either. He’s staring silently into the fire and never even glancing at Ray, and that’s got to mean something, right? Right?

At bedtime, Ray crawls into their doubled-up sleeping bag, and Fraser puts out the lamp and joins him, snugged up against Ray’s back in the icy dark for _almost the last time_. As he starts to thaw, Ray thinks about trying to sleep without that solid warmth shielding him from the night and that even breathing in his ear, but he _can’t_. Some things are just impossible; that’s life.

So he reaches back, takes hold of Fraser’s arm, and wraps it around his own chest. He feels Fraser startle and then relax. He gives Frase’s hand a squeeze—and Frase squeezes back, not just with his hand, but hugging Ray close with his whole body. Ray holds onto that arm as he drifts off to sleep, actually warm for the first time in weeks, with Fraser’s nose nestled against the back of his neck.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! I keep seeing new-to-me names popping up 'round here on AO3, and I would love to get to know some of you lovely people better. So, I encourage you to drop a comment just to say hello, if you're so inclined! 
> 
> (This is not a pathetic ruse to boost my comment rate, honest. :) I'm only in online fandom at all because people talked to me on AO3 and introduced me to comms elsewhere, and this is still the first place I tend to encounter people. It's not really an efficient place to get to know each other, that's not what it's designed for -- but hey, we're all here, so why not? *waves hello*)


End file.
